The online and retail sports books that recently began taking legal sports-wagering action combined to generate $59.3 million in bets in the month of July. That broke the previous record, which was set in June.

Prepare yourself for a similar story in Oregon, where the state’s lottery has plans to introduce legalized sports wagering later this year.

A spokesperson for the lottery told me on Friday, “We’re getting close.”

Here’s what I know:

It will be called “Oregon Lottery Scoreboard.” Phase one of the launch will be a digital sports book that provides a full-range of professional sports available to players. This includes the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, professional soccer, tennis, MMA, motor sports, snooker, darts, cricket and more. They will not initially offer collegiate games as a wagering option.

Oregon Lottery Scoreboard players must be 21 or older. The game is geo-fenced so location services must be enabled and you must have a valid social security number to play. You must be in the state of Oregon and not on tribal lands to wager.

There will be three ways to wager: Single-game bets, parlays and in-game wagering. Players will use the mobile app or website to set up an account that will allow them to deposit money to wager with. Players will be allowed to withdraw or deposit at any time. Winnings will go directly into their account.

Responsible gambling platforms are built into the tool.

Phase Two of the launch, scheduled likely for mid-2020, will include betting kiosks at Oregon Lottery retail locations. The kiosks will be tested in select locations following a successful launch of the mobile app and website. The kiosks would include a full sports book offering.

The initial target start for Scorebook was the start of the NFL season. I wouldn’t hold the Lottery to that, though. They’re currently testing the platform, as well as Lottery’s ability to support customers who use it. Pennsylvania had issues getting its app readily available in the Apple store. I anticipate similar challenges in Oregon. Said a source: “Once we are satisfied with everything, we’ll move it into a production environment. Then we do one more round of security testing to ensure everything performs the same in the live environment as it did in testing. The testing will drive our launch date, as opposed to cutting corners to hit the first kickoff.”

Personally, I’m intrigued to see what the handle will be like in Oregon out of the gates. It’s going to raise a boat load of money. Hopefully some of that will make an impact somewhere meaningful. The lottery says 53 percent of lottery dollars are earmarked for education.

I’m also impressed that the lottery isn’t rushing to market with a product that might have some glitches out of the gate. There’s a tremendous temptation to get this done in front of the NFL season. But I suspect they may miss their target by a week or three.

The lottery was wise to go with an off-the-shelf product vs. creating something from scratch, too. Game integrity is what will set this offering apart from offshore books, right? So a well-performing product from the start is key.

Also interested in what the potential downside might be. Because there will be one, be sure. It comes with the territory. I did an interview with Arnie Wexler, who is the nation’s top expert on compulsive gambling. It’s worth a listen.

When I told Wexler that Oregon was going to introduce legalized sports wagering he said, “Floodgates have been opened, absolutely... we’re on a plane to destroy everybody who has a gambling addiction in the next couple of years."